Cousin Shy
by The Great Invader ZIM
Summary: Dib's cousin comes to stay with Dib for a while. What's going to happen? Chapter Three is now up!
1. Cousin

The usual apology:

The usual apology:

Well, I'm pretty sure the whole Dib's cousin coming to Skool thing has been done to death by now, but I want to write one… it is original, I thought of it on my own, but if you have a similar character I haven't heard of or read

about, tough. This story was a blast to write, so I'm not removing it for anything. N'yah.

Disclaimer: Tell you what. You nice people can go to my site, INVASION! For the disclaimer. It will give me some more hits. If you're not using Internet Explorer when you go to the site, it's probably going to look really screwed up.

Now, without further jabbering, I present you with Cousin Shy!

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Dib sat at a desk in his room, the only light coming from the laptop in front of him. It glowed blue, and displayed equations and blueprints for some type of machine. This invention would surely be successful in exposing ZIM to the whole world…

Directly in the middle of the last plans, Dib thought hard. He had been idly drawing pictures of a dissected ZIM with his pencil, but he needed complete silence… Wait, wait, he had it! Just a few more seconds and his plans would be completed…

"DIB!" Gaz yelled. Dib jumped, and whirled around in his chair to see Gaz, GameSlave in hand, as usual. He narrowed his eyes.

"Gaz, I'm just about finish the plans that will save all of humanity… what? What do you want?" Dib growled, snapping the pencil in his hand. 

Gaz looked just as bothered as Dib. "Your creepy look-alike is here. I'm on the last level here, so you've got to be the entertainer. See ya." She left, and Dib turned back around. He would not divide his attention now, not even for…

"…It's me, Shai. Dib? You in there?" 

Dib twirled around again. He saw her then. She was about three-foot-two in height. Her eye color was a solid black. She had wild, spiky sky blue hair. One large spear of it in front of each her eyes, one other spike falling, covering her ears on each side, and a large, _really spiky pointy-tail in the back of her head. Did I mention she had spiky hair? Black sunglasses sat on top of her head. She sported a black trench coat like Dib, but her T-shirt displayed the standard green alien's head, but it was obviously screaming. The royal purple colored fabric of the shirt surrounded this image. Blue denim jeans disappeared into knee-height black boots. _

"Shai," Dib said.

Shai smiled. "Yeah, that's my name. So what-cha doing?" she asked, walking over to the designs and laptop on Dib's desk. Her eyebrows shot up.

"Dib, this is pretty cool stuff. What do you need this for?"

Dib went to her side and swelled with pride. "_I have discovered an alien who has come from a distant planet to take over the human race."_

Shai was quite reserved in her enthusiasm. "This isn't like the time you said Bigfoot was in your garage, is it?" she questioned.

The boy grinned. "Ha ha. It _was using the belt sander. … No, this alien is trying to be a little subtler…and he fails miserably." Dib held up a sketch of ZIM, and some writings. Pressing the play button on a tape player, sound bites of ZIM proclaiming various things. The ignorance of inferiority of humans, how he will be lord over all humans…and so forth._

Basically, then all skepticism in Shai vanished. She believed her cousin for once. They were both paranormal nuts, but sometimes she felt that he went too far.But this time it was different. This time, Dib was _right. Even though she felt he was right, she didn't believe entirely._

After Dib had explained all that had happened so far between he and ZIM, Shai explained that she would have to see ZIM to completely believe Dib. Dib said that she should come to Skool. The girl had grinned and said that her transfer was already on its way. 

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After a rather interesting introduction to the class, Shai sat down in the desk next to ZIM. She stared at him from the moment she sat down to the time that the lunch bell rang. His green skin, that ridiculous hairpiece, that eerie backpack of his… ZIM was, without a doubt, alien.

Shai joined up with Dib and Gaz at lunch. "ZIM is most definitely an alien," she admitted to Dib, and continued staring at ZIM, not listening to his 'An Elvis toupee does not a human make' comment. Staring up, she smiled at her cousin.

"Dibby, you're getting too weird… I'm gonna go talk to ZIM…" Shai said. Then she smiled, knocked her sunglasses from her head to her face, and walked over to ZIM, who was examining the mystery meat of the day. After a second of poking at the excessive amount of gravy on the meat, ZIM pushed it away and looked disgusted.

Shai stood behind ZIM until he noticed her presence. He turned, eyes narrowing. 

"Go away, stinkbeast," ZIM growled. 

The shades in front of Shai's eyes glinted in the artificial light of the cafeteria. "Yeah, like I'll go away when I know what you really are." Shai said this and waited for the green kid's reaction.

ZIM began to sweat slightly. More earthen children knowing his true identity? Impossible! No one believed Dib.

"And what am I, human?" ZIM asked, trying to convey nonchalance.

Shai was just about to make a sarcastic remark, but her shades fell from their perch on her nose and slid down and hung from her ears and below her chin. Her black eyes sparkled in the light and they reflected ZIM strangely. After a few seconds of just staring at him, Shai pushed her sunglasses back onto her nose with a slow-moving index finger. She turned and left the cafeteria without another word. Dib would've followed, but he didn't know if he should. Instead, Dib stood up and went to ask ZIM what the hell he did to his cousin.

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Shai admitted to herself, right then and there. As she leaned against the wall of the bathroom, which was thankfully empty, she acknowledged that something had clicked between her and ZIM. Shai was almost positive ZIM hadn't felt it, but the instant she really looked at him, she could've sworn she saw every aspect of his life and hers go rushing by in a mad flux of colors. Could that possibly be love? His image sprung up again in her mind, causing her to slightly quake in pure emotion.

"Well, then, it's decided," Shai muttered. She wouldn't reveal this attraction to anyone, especially ZIM or Dib. Gaz she didn't like at all, so she could not tell anyone. She would keep it a secret, and hope that this attraction went away. Otherwise, she might have to go against Dib in this war. Unbeknownst to him, Shai had great admiration for her sci-fi nut cousin. Shai reassured herself that this little bit of feeling for the enemy would vanish, yes, all in due time.

Was she ever wrong.


	2. Stealing of Ships

Disclaimer: To my web page with you

Disclaimer: To my web page with you!

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"_Likes _him?! Are you sure?"

"Yeah! Just look at the way she's lookin' at him!"

"No one likes that freak."

"Well, _she_ does, I know it!"

Shai ignored the whispered comments from the kids at the table next to her and continued staring at ZIM. She then stared at her food, not hungry in the least. Dib, who was sitting next to her, was glancing sideways at her, and Gaz was playing her GameSlave, oblivious.

The date was two days after her arrival at Skool. After one day of trying to hide her affection for ZIM, the news had traveled all over the Skool. From the instant the morning rang that moment, all the kids in Shai's class were passing their newest gossip back and forth. Shai wondered what Dib would think. 

Now it was time for recess. The cafeteria emptied out. Shai pushed her sunglasses down onto her nose as she walked out into the hated sunlight. Even behind the black, tinted glass the yellow-orange star's rays made her squint. Shai was suddenly pulled back by a grip on her left shoulder.

Dib was the one who pulled her back. There was no one around them, but from his position in a corner of the fence, ZIM looked at Shai with a confused expression.

"Shai, what's going on?" Dib asked. "They're all saying you _like _ZIM. Did you forget? He's an alien!"

The girl diverted her gaze from Dib's. "I…I don't know. I just looked at him and I just suddenly had affection for him," Shai muttered.

Dib was silent for a time. Then, he said, "But you're going to help me, right, cousin? If we team up, ZIM can't win! Come on, Shai."

Shai looked Dib in the eye. "I…I will. This is just a little phase, I'm sure." She tried to switch topics. "Now, after Skool, what do you say we work on your new project? The one I saw on your desk?"

Her cousin seemed satisfied with that.

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"Whoa. What the heck is this thing, anyway?" Shai commented as Dib reached for a screwdriver. 

Dib grinned. "It's a hovercraft. When ZIM captured me using a holographic projector, I managed to download blueprints of his 'Advanced VootRunner' as he called it. The prints were in some strange…alien-y language, so I had to modify them a bit." He stared down at the meager makings of a hovercraft of some kind.

The girl tossed her sunglasses aside. Here, encompassed by the wonderful glow of machinery, she did not need them. They were in Professor Membrane's lab, since he was out at his lab for the time being. She stared at the blueprints, made a few quick calculations, and worked on the machine for a long time after Dib went to sleep.

Since when Shai went upstairs to sleep, it was nearly three in the morning, she did not see the eyes looking on from the basement window above her…

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Dib woke to the realization that he would probably get in trouble for leaving a big hovercraft in his dad's lab. Stumbling down the stairs, tripping over his own trench coat, Dib stared blankly at the spot where the hovercraft had been just last night. Then, as the facts sunk into his foggy brain…

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!! WHAT HAPPENED?!" Dib cried. As he circled the spot where his invention had been. A minute later, Shai was jumping down the stairs. She stared, openmouthed, at the hovercraft-devoid laboratory.

"…Where'd the hovercraft go?" Shai muttered. She then realized with small consolation that a piece of the craft had broken off, as planned for by her.

Walking over to it, Shai surveyed the vehicle. It was red and about as big and similarly shaped as a TIE Fighter from Star Wars. She has been very tired last night; she hadn't had time to think of something exceptionally original. The stubby little wings had two launchers each, both capable of firing super-sharp spears. The windshield of the craft was almost black, for it was designed with her eyes in mind. Shai hated sunlight, obviously.

"Dib, c'mere and look at this," Shai called to her cousin.

He walked over, muttering about failure and the doomed human race. He stared at the red small vehicle thing that was capable of seating two. "What? _That? That _is just scrap metal. I mean, I didn't make the hovercraft _red._"

Shai narrowed her eyes and made an impatient noise. "_No, _Dib. This is an auxillary ship-thing. _I _made last time after you went to bed. It was programmed to fall off the main ship in case it took off." She paused. "I also set a homing device on the main ship, so we can find the craft now. Get in. I'm flying."

They both climbed in to a glowing deep purple interior that was surprisingly comfy. Shai poked the control and moved some more controls and they launched from an opening panel in the wall. Within moments they were blasting through the sky using a cloaking device, of course.

Dib pointed to the screen displaying the homing beacon's location. "It looks likes it's…whoa…in the desert, like a hundred miles from everyone."

The girl considered this information. "His house is probably too small for two ships, so he's maybe going to disintegrate yours out there into ashes. Let's do it!" She pressed a button and they hurled off at double speed.

"Yes! YES! While we're there, we can take out ZIM… and the Human race will be saved from doom!" Dib shouted with glee.

Shai was silent. Dib failed to notice.

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ZIM was inside Dib's ship, which was pathetic yet rather intriguing. He had deciphered _his _Advanced VootRunner's schematics and built this. But it would all be a waste once ZIM blew it up out here in this endless stretch of worthless sand.

The ship, which he had heard Dib refer to as a 'hovercraft,' was more than that. It was capable of matching three quarters the speed of the Advanced VootRunner, and that was impressive…for a human stinkbeast. It was completely black. The cockpit had an aquamarine glass shielding it on one side, and black metal surrounding the rest. The interior glowed with shockingly bright green lights. There were ski-like attachments on the bottom for surface-skimming and large jets for cloud-surfing travel. A variation of a satellite dish was positioned on top for a cloaking device. This, of course, could be sliced open with ZIM's equipment for, although this flight technology was derived from the Irken's, it still was a human cloaking shield. The end of the ship seemed to have held something that broken off, but ZIM couldn't remember any of that, so it couldn't be very important.

GIR was inside Dib's machine, trying to get one of the screens to show TV programs, but he was more wrecking the craft than getting the Scary Monkey Show. Since the vehicle was preparing for inevitable doom, it didn't matter. ZIM had brought GIR along because he wanted to help, but he himself had controlled Dib's simplistic ship while also piloted his Advanced VootRunner, which was parked nearby, with his new headset.

ZIM was very proud of his Advanced VootRunner. The glass dome in front of the cockpit was still present, and the insides still ebbed a strange magenta color, but the VootRunner was significantly larger. There was an expansive cargo hold, currently half-full of strange devices – flashing, glowing, and beeping – that were very alien. A large, triangular mirror was positioned on the roof of the cargo bay, shimmering. The mirror was his wonderful holographic projector, useful for confusing Dib like on the other night. Two menacing black cables shifted around, moving freely like snakes from their positions, one on each wall of the outside of the ship. Another piece of Irken technology made even better.

"GIR! Get out of the ship! I am going to destroy it now… MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!" ZIM laughed maniacally as they walked from Dib's ship.

"Bye-bye shippy!" GIR called to the black form in the sands.

Then, suddenly, a voice rang out.

"Don't touch my hovercraft, ZIM!"

ZIM's head snapped up to see a red spacecraft streaking towards him, and his excellent eyesight saw through the black glass informed him that both Dib and the girl who '_liked' _him, according to the class, were both in the cockpit. The top slid open silently and Dib jumped out. The girl stared in, and knocked his sunglasses onto her nose and watched.

The boy charged ZIM and the alien cringed, but at the last second he leapt on the top of his ship. Dib grabbed a spear – extra ammo for the launcher – and hopped back down onto the sands. Holding the spear with its point facing ZIM, Dib charged again, and his eyes said he wouldn't stop this time.

ZIM was shocked that the human could do something so rash as to rush at him with a pointy stick that he was basically rooted to the spot. The point, Dib, ZIM, everything was rushing on at supersonic speed…GIR just rolling in the sand…

ZIM shut his eyes just as the spear was on a direct route to his squeedily spooch. But there was no pain. Carefully, ZIM opened his eyes and saw something sky blue blocking his view of Dib.

Shai had stopped Dib. 

"Shai!" Dib shouted. "What're you doing?!"

The cousin smiled sadly. "I promised myself I would let my heart decide, not my mind. I know you can't understand, Dib, but know that I still have great admiration for you." She spread her arms open wide in front of ZIM in a protective fashion.

Her sky blue hair waved as she used her left foot to kick the spear from Dib's hand. She then jumped up, and did a three hundred and sixty degree spin kick and hit Dib square in the chin. He fell to the ground, unconscious. A flare of shock from her actions flooded her face, but in an instant it was gone. 

ZIM said nothing. He turned, grabbed a laser gun, and shot Dib's hovercraft. Setting down the gun, he took one step toward the Advanced VootRunner. Shai heard his voice then.

"Come with me, human," he called. She followed him into the Advanced VootRunner, and GIR jumped into her arms for no reason at all, sand falling from his compartments and tiny little joints. The hovercraft, she saw, was engulfed in flame, but it then turned to ash and was blown away in the wind. The red ship was still intact, waiting for Dib to recover and fly home.

A vicious smile spread across ZIM's face. This human was, he now saw, the relative of Dib. The similarity was uncanny. She had the same brilliance as Dib, and she could be invaluable to his cause.

But they both silently wondered what would happen next.


	3. Four Years Later...

Disclaimer: Have you the brain worms that I need to tell you where to go again

Disclaimer: Have you the brain worms that I need to tell you where to go _again?! Web page! Idiots!_

_ _

Notes: Just wanted to add, if I haven't already, that I believe that Dib is 12 and Gaz is 11. If you think Dib is 10 and Gaz is older than him… well, that's _your _opinion.

_ _

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Shai sighed and looked down from the top of the ruined building. All these years and he still had the nerve to try. What does it take to break some one's spirit?

It was four years after the incident in the desert. ZIM was now in control, most humans under his power, except for, of course, Dib and a few others. A little part of the success of the Invader's mission was Shai's doing. She helped him be more human by teaching him how to talk and act, thus helping to hide his identity. Then, when the time was just right, a full offensive went underway. The months prior to it had been spent creating deadly weapons, so the bombs and bullets of human technology proved feeble in nature and effect. The takeover had been quite easy.

But Dib had formed a group of others who miraculously escaped enslavement, and they had been trying to pull others free from the Irken's grip and put humans back in control of their planet. So far the group had been failing, and Shai's alliance with ZIM did nothing the help their cause. She was now skilled in the deadly arts, and could drop many without weapons.

A midnight breeze ruffled her sky blue hair, still in the same position since her youth. She was, technically, still a young person at age sixteen, but what she had done against her own race and her current state of mind – serious, cold, cruel – made her feel older. Her trench coat was torn, and it reached down only to her knees. Her royal purple alien shirt now bore the grinning Irken symbol, and was considerably shorter, revealing her navel and the steely muscles in her stomach. Shai still wore her jeans, but they were a new pair, since she was now five-foot-seven in height. Below her knees, the jeans disappeared into a new pair of boots, heavily worn and scuffed.

Cracking the knuckles of both her hands in turn, Shai's eyes strayed to the tattoo on the back of her right hand. It was a red Irken symbol, the sign of an ally of ZIM. Although it was conspicuous, it was required otherwise the guards threw you in a slave camp when you tried to get back inside ZIM's massive fortress. Which was located at the end of same block where his house had been, only it was now a much, much larger compound. You didn't need to spy on Dib's rebel group; finding them was always just too easy.

Pierced through the lobe of her right ear was a small, thick black hoop earring. Shai touched it gently, and a pair of black sunglasses unfolded from the earring and rested on her nose. The earring was gone now, completely morphed into the shades. The lenses flickered purple, the color completely on the side that was facing Shai. Schematics of the building Dib and his little gang had just run out of appeared on the lenses. The picture moved slowly, and information about the building scrolling up from the left side.

"Weapons storage…now with explosives inside…" Shai grinned. As if blowing up a weapon storage facility could help their cause. ZIM had so many weapons in his fortress alone, he could blast away half of Earth. A strange tingle of guilt and mixed emotions coursed through Shai. Fighting family? Wasn't that really wrong? But it was really right at the same time because of the love she held in her heart.

Shaking herself out of it, Shai leapt from her perch onto her black vehicle, a flying surfboard, to be precise, and spend silently after Dib and his crew. They were on foot, of course, so within moments she was gliding above them, slowing the speed of her board to match their running pace.

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Dib ran on, his lungs burning. They had to be far from the warehouse before it blew. _Far _away. His ripped and torn trench coat billowed behind him, waving in the dead night air. The scythe shape of his hair now hung down in front of his face and it kept hitting him in the face. He still wore much of the same style of clothes: the not very happy face blue shirt, long-sleeved, black pants, and his black boots. He had grown up to six feet now, and he towered above the still-under-three-feet tall ZIM. Of course, the pride of being taller than the alien scum was always short-lived because when ever he got close enough to ZIM to kill him, Shai always showed up to defend him. She seemed now to be a shadow, hiding in the night, ready to catch and kill.

Shai. His cousin. The only one within miles of him who had shared his paranormal ideas and fantasies. And yet the one who had helped the evil alien to his throne above all of mankind. She was always seemingly around him, looming, waiting for the perfect moment to strike and ruin the group's plans to begin the saving of their race. He wondered what went on in her head, and why she had chosen to join forces with ZIM instead of staying with him, family, to fight. Had Shai not been allied with ZIM, he might not have been running from a warehouse ready to explode. Then again, it probably wouldn't explode.

It was a shock to everyone, Dib especially, when the explosives did go off.

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"Shai! What the hell was that?! You didn't stop the filthy rebels?!" ZIM shrieked. The girl remained silent and let him rant for a bit, his image filling the lenses of her hi-tech shades. Then she cleared her throat for attention. ZIM quieted, waiting for her to speak.

"That warehouse wasn't crucial. There was no point in having a clock-racing, bomb defusing test when one wasn't necessary." Shai waited, a little nervous at what he would think. The Irken's eyes narrowed, then he was considering.

ZIM grinned wickedly. "Good thinking, Shai. Perhaps the fools will become cocky then we can **destroy them all! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!**" The Irken cackled for a while, and Shai was proud that he had stop referring to her as a 'stinkbeast' and 'Earthen slug.' It took three years to fully gain his trust, and she cherished it dearly.

Vigorously shaking his head to clear the glee, ZIM locked eyes with Shai through the lenses. "Return to the fortress, Shai. In light of this new tactic, we will lie dormant while that idiot_ Dib _and his pathetic slugs destroy more weapons and aircraft hangars. Then, when we get them where we want them, well…I will have the _honor, _Shai." Grinning, ZIM ended his transmission.

Shai knew what the 'honor' was. It was quite clear. ZIM wanted to be the one to kill Dib. 

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But that was just one future possibility.

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Shai leaned back again a magenta machine in ZIM's lab. She watched the small Irken pace back and form, considering her fate. It wasn't long after the incident in the desert, a few hours perhaps. 

"So _human,_" ZIM said, annunciating every syllable of the word. "You would betray your own kind? Or was that a trick to get into my lair?"

The girl raised her eyebrows, taking a few seconds to collect her thoughts. "To be honest, ZIM, I really don't know why I did what I did." Shai gazed down at the floor, her eyes narrowed, remembering the kick she dealt to her own cousin.

ZIM sneered. "_You don't know? Dib _is family to you, right? Heh, you don't know why you betrayed your own kin, stinkbeast?" He grinned evilly. "If you're so _eager _to make your entire race into slaves, you can be a temporary ally, I suppose."

A crash suddenly was heard from upstairs. Seconds later GIR slid down the tube from the garbage can, shed his disguise, and ran to a screen in the corner. Flicking it on, he sat down and watched the Scary Monkey Show.

"GIR!" ZIM yelled. "I thought I told you to watch that upstairs!!"

The tiny robot looked from the confused Shai to the angry ZIM. "TV went to sleep!" GIR chirped, then directed his attention to the screen and the monkey.

"Sleep?" ZIM asked quizzically, but then realization dawned on him. "GIR, you broke the TV?" Not waiting for a response, ZIM stormed over to the exit, and moments later was jumping out the toilet upstairs, ready to fix the TV.

Shai was left with GIR downstairs, and she ambled over to a strange machine to take a look. The controls were in an alien language, probably Irken, she thought.

"That's our disguise machine! I'm a mongoose dog!" GIR squealed, looking over his shoulder at Shai. The credits for the Scary Monkey Show rolled on the screen, and GIR walked over to Shai.

"Wanna be a mongoose dog?" GIR asked, pushing Shai between the two halves that waited for the disguise to be inputted.

Shai turned around and bent over to look at GIR. "GIR, please move. I don't need a disguise." The tiny robot cocked his head to the side.

GIR stared for a moment, then banged on the controls. The pod closed around Shai, and she looked startled. As the pod shimmered, Shai yelled at GIR.

"GIR! Stop this thing! Ow…why does it hurt?!" Shai cried, the halves coming apart. Shai fell to the floor, shaking violently. GIR stared at her. Shai slowly raised her hands and then looked into a reflective monitor nearby.

Shai's mouth opened slightly. "GIR…what did you press?" she asked, standing up slowly. As she gazed into the monitor, seeing her own reflection, ZIM got off the elevator and saw Shai looking at herself.

"What the…" ZIM muttered. "Who… are you that stinkbeast girl?"

Standing there, before ZIM and GIR was an Irken girl with shimmering blue eyes, curled antennae, and long black eyelashes. She was dressed in Invader's garb, and even had a backpack. At that moment, four spider's legs emerged from the pink and gray backpack and supported the girl's weight as she was held, suspended, in the air.

The Irken girl turned to ZIM. "ZIM, GIR pushed me into the disguise machine and punched some buttons…what the hell happened to me?" she asked. "Is it possible to make an Irken disguise with that thing?"

ZIM slowly walked over the to machine to see what controls were last input.

"This…this is impossible." ZIM stared at the screen, which Irken symbols filled. "GIR didn't activate the disguise maker, he set it to 'Remove Disguise.' So…that means…"

Shai's Irken jaw dropped. "I'm…I'm Irken? No! I've always been human! I had a human mother and father, my cousins, aunts, and uncles! We lived in the city…how can I be Irken?!" she cried, raising her black-gloved hands up to look at them.

ZIM thought for a moment. "The Tallests will surely know something about this." He turned to the console next to him. "Computer! Establish connection with the Irken Imperial Ship!"

"PROCESSING…PROCESSING!!" the computer yelled. Moments later, Red and Purple appeared on the screen, and they groaned at the sight of ZIM.

"What is it _now, _ZIM? Didn't you just report in?" Red questioned, crossing his arms. ZIM saluted, and then dropped his hand. 

"Sirs, I don't want to disturb you, but I have found an Irken Invader here on Earth," ZIM said.

Purple scoffed. "Now he's hallucinating," he murmured to Red. But the Tallests both opened their eyes wide when ZIM pulled Shai into view.

"_Shai?!?_" they exclaimed in unison. Shai's expression became confused, and then _her _eyes opened wide when she heard what the Tallests said next.

"ZIM, Shai, stand where you are. We are going to teleport you here to the ship," Red said, gesturing at a technician in front of an Irken keyboard in a corner. The technician typed furiously and soon ZIM and Shai's forms were slowly disappearing.

ZIM glared at GIR. "GIR! Watch after the house. Don't let anyone in, I'll be back soon." The robot's eyes became red and he saluted. ZIM nodded as he and the girl disappeared.

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ZIM and Shai appeared moments later in the Tallests command room. ZIM saluted and Shai followed, her salute conveying confusion. The Tallests glanced at each other and Purple nodded at Red.

"Okay. The report we received from your SIR just arrived, so we'll explain, Shai," Red said. 


	4. The Explaination and..."The End"

Disclaimer: Web page, please

Disclaimer: Web page, please. That is where it is located. And Red and Purple might be out of character, since I really don't know that much about how they act.

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Purple hovered back and forth, rubbing his head. Red stared at Shai and ZIM, and finally spoke.

"Not long ago, an girl named Shai was assigned to steer this ship." Red gestured to Shai as he said this. 

"Unfortunately, you almost crashed us into a nearby planet and also managed to completely destroy the steering mechanisms at the same time," Purple said as his expression grew dark for a moment.

Red sighed. "But when you came before us after the, ah, _incident,_ I decided we should just assign you an information gathering job far away. I was feeling merciful that day," he stated, slightly smiling at Shai.

Purple cocked a nonexistent eyebrow. "I thought that was the day you had too much of that rat blood liquor from Blorch," he commented, and quickly caught a glare from Red. He snickered.

"So we assigned you a SIR and sent here off in the same direction as you, ZIM." Red glanced at Purple, signaling that it was his turn to talk.

"Now, as far as we can tell from the SIR's report, you, Shai, not having even _marginal _proficiency with technology of any kind, pressed something and sent you both careening out into space," Purple explained. "As you were about to crash into a planet, you ran for cover in the nearest place. The SIR tried to find a safe place to land, but you still crashed."

Shai had slumped down onto the ground as she heard the tale, but the Tallests continued. "When the SIR came back online, it saw a human female sitting, dazed, in front of it. Apparently you hid in the disguise maker in your ship, and it had activated during the crash. But the SIR did a scan on you, and apparently you had amnesia. And, if that didn't beat all, an abnormal, crash-related side effect of the disguise maker was that you had taken on the female form of the nearest human." Purple stopped and hit Red, letting him continue.

"And here's the part that confuses even us," Red began. "After that, the SIR salvaged some components from your wrecked VootRunner and created a device unlike anything seen yet. The SIR decided that until some hapless Irken came to this planet, Earth, for it did not know of ZIM, the best way to keep you safe was to move you in with a human family. It used its device to create memories for you and the nearest human family." The Tallest halted for a moment, catching his breath.

ZIM stared at Shai while the silence ensued. "Dib?" he murmured quietly.

Purple looked at Shai, who was rubbing her eyes. "And there you are. Judging by your expression, it looks like your amnesia is gone." The tale was finally completed.

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Dib slowly took off the headphones. He stared into the night sky. ZIM hadn't been to Skool that day, so Dib had gone over to his house, and ran into the green dog, without its dog head on, that had chirped, "Master isn't home!" Realizing that ZIM might have gone off to call an alien army, Dib had grabbed his radio and headed for the roof.

"My own cousin," Dib murmured, then corrected himself. She hadn't been his cousin. A SIR, whatever that was, had altered his mind. Maybe it was something like that small thing that had been prancing around at ZIM's house. 

Hearing that a new transmission was coming through – they were talking again – he slipped the headphones back on and listened intently, all the while outrage that a thing like ZIM could have masqueraded as his cousin welled up inside of him.

-----------

Red and Purple had thought for a short while about this. Shai, who had now fully recovered from her amnesia, was standing before them expectantly.

"Invader Shai, after consideration, we have decided that because of this ordeal, you shall have a job on this ship," Purple said to her, and her eyes sparkled.

"You shall be in charge of organizing the SIR's in the equipment room downstairs. You will be working with another, can't remember who, exactly. Anyway, just get down there," Red commanded.

Shai saluted and grinned. "Yes, my Tallests! I shall not disappoint you!" she said, and left the roof, determined to do the best job she could, and maybe she could be a real Invader someday.

"ZIM, you're going back to Earth, stay where you are," Red said, and touched some keys on a nearby console. 

"While I'm still here, my Tallests, I want to ask: When will the armada get the Ear-" Before ZIM could finish the last word he was sent back to his lab on Earth.

Purple turned to Red. "Is our armada completed made up of people like ZIM, or something?" he asked. 

Red shrugged.

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I hope I explained that right. It might've been confusing. If too many of you don't get it (_I _didn't get it when I drew it) I might do another chapter that's in a simpler form. This is the last chapter. If I continued this further, I would screw it up. I hope you enjoyed it.


End file.
